Chapter 2Earlier still

He checked his watch for the umpteenth time. Twelve minutes past. It wasn't like Brian to be late for anything, but he'd been acting weird since yesterday, so maybe something was up. Brian wasn't normally the sort to make mysterious telephone calls at five in the morning. It was one of the things Colin liked about him.

The streets in all directions heaved and surged with road traffic and pedestrians. Doubtless that was the reason for Brian's lateness, but it suggested that his mysterious plan wasn't as desperately time-sensitive as he'd implied on the telephone. Busy crowds always seemed a dreadful inconvenience to other people, but Colin found they generally melted out of his way as he approached. He only had to stand behind somebody for a second or two and they'd get an unexplained urge to move aside.

It was strange, but useful. Similarly, if he stood completely still people seemed to ignore him.

Not Brian, though. The man had eyes like a hawk, and missed nothing. He had a seemingly endless catalogue of unconvincing replies when quizzed about his obvious military training. Some days he'd claim he was ex-SAS, other days he'd been trained by a shadowy society of ninjas. He'd told so many lies it was impossible to guess the truth. Brian was a man without a past, or at least no past he'd admit to. That was something else Colin liked about him. They had something in common.

No family ties. No awkward backstory. They'd meet up occasionally, have a few drinks, watch some TV, complain about the world in general, and then go their separate ways. It wasn't a conventional friendship, but Colin wasn't a conventional person, and Brian... well, Brian clearly had some issues of his own. For their own reason, they both saw the world in an unusual way. It made for some interesting conversations.

'Oi oi! Sorry I'm late.' Brian shoved his way through the crowd, all elbows and angles in a dark grey suit. 'Stationary traffic and human vermin conspired against the concept of good timekeeping, as usual, but here I am, at long last. Better late than never, eh?'

He smiled a crooked grin and waggled his eyebrows good-naturedly. With his bobbing adam's apple, hooked beak of a nose and juglike ears, Brian was far from attractive. He got by instead on a surfeit of charm. His dark hair was shaved down to stubble, and for all his six foot four inches of height he couldn't have weighed more than ten stone, and yet he could talk his way into or out of any kind of trouble and nearly always walk away without a scratch.

He unslung a Reebok sports bag from his shoulder, and thrust it toward Colin. 'Here. Your lucky day, you get first pick.'

'First pick of what?' asked Colin.

In reply, Brian unzipped the bag with a flourish. 'Two guns, two masks, and...' he jerked a thumb to indicate the two sides of the road '...two banks.'

'Two banks? What? You want to rob a bank? You want me to help you rob a bank?'

'You always did catch on quick when the chips're down. They're down, Colin, this is crunch time. Here, I'll make it easy, you take the MP5, it's a classic.' He pulled it out of the bag and pressed it into Colin's hands. 'Everybody knows what it does, so you can scare people into line without firing a shot. Just in case, though, here, couple of spare magazines. Best to cover all eventualities, eh?'

'What, like the bobbies showing up, when somebody reports seeing two guys with an SMG in the middle of Manchester?'

'Something like that, yeah. Here you go then, you take the black mask, I'll take the charcoal. It goes with my suit.'

'That was one of the choices? Black or charcoal?'

'And you get to choose which bank. I like the big glass windows on this Santander place.'

'Can I choose not to say no thanks?'

'You can, but I've got a gun, and I say you're helping me rob a bank, or I'll shoot you.'

'I could shoot you first. I've got the better gun, you've only got a pistol.'

'Yeah, but you'd have to explain it to the cops, and they'd never believe you.'

'I'm not sure I believe it myself.'

'Just stick to the plan and everything'll be a-okay.'

And with that, Brian put on his mask, slung the bag over his shoulder and yanked the door open. Colin hastily pulled on his own mask and followed him in.

Read the five chapters of Mike in onw sitting and enjoyed them SO much. TY! :)

18 Mar 18, 21:50

Mike L says:

I will be looking at the new stuff and i am sure i will like it. Hope u r well <3

18 Mar 18, 21:50

Mike L says:

Sorry i have not been checking in. I am always thinking about your website and your screations.

1 Oct 17, 09:02

E.E. says:

Another chapter up. More coming tomorrow.

29 Sep 17, 09:41

E.E. says:

Okay, here we go, something new: crossover fiction.

28 Sep 17, 07:42

E.E. says:

Ugh. Forced to update Skype to include the latest rubbishy unwanted nonsense.

19 Sep 17, 13:07

E.E. says:

Funny thing: while assembling his StormWolf model, Isegrim somehow managed to put one of the parts in his mouth and chew it up.

4 Sep 17, 07:16

E.E. says:

Thanks, Mike. I'll be posting up something soon.

13 Aug 17, 16:50

MikeL says:

So what i am saying is, you just do what you want, :) --- a supportive reader.

13 Aug 17, 16:50

MikeL says:

At the same time, Whateley websites are always being plagued by people who are rude and crude and uncomplimentary and even abusive of the authors. Famously, it is said that this is why Diane Castle left. And her stuff was awesome!

13 Aug 17, 16:48

MikeL says:

TY 4 your post. Don't feel bad about "Dawn". I bet DaVinci had a bunch of paintings in his attic he didn't try to sell because he thought they weren't up to snuff.

16 Jul 17, 17:26

E.E. says:

I'm still alive! The Dawn story got some bad feedback on the Whateley forum, so Ive backpedalled a bit. Working on something new.

3 Jul 17, 22:34

MikeL says:

Just want you to know i still think about you, about the characters in Verity's Ark, and hope things are going well for you.

21 May 17, 06:27

JimmiXzSq says:

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19 May 17, 13:28

MikeL says:

i should have said "hopefully in favor of nice real life stuff you like". <3 :)

19 May 17, 13:26

MikeL says:

I'm checking for updates/new chapters on Dawn. I know that you are winding down your web stuff hopefully in favor of real life. Lots of thanks and compliments and love.

2 May 17, 18:45

MikeL says:

Just wanted to say thank you for everything :)

20 Apr 17, 17:12

MikeL says:

I found more of Dawn on the Whateley site and enjoyed reading it very much :) ty!!

20 Apr 17, 02:02

MikeL says:

Read the first chapter of Dawn and the only criticism is it was too short! I was done reading it too soon. More, please. :) Most enjoyable!

5 Apr 17, 21:45

MikeL says:

You know how much I like the Whateley universe and how much i like your writing so "Dawn" is going to be, i am sure, the greatest mixture of two good things since peanut butter and jelly. Will be following it intently. :)

2 Apr 17, 16:58

Barnypok says:

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1 Apr 17, 23:11

Barnypok says:

OzTSBomPdAknOimOPT

11 Mar 17, 15:58

MikeL says:

And thank you. I feel honored that you give me clues and name me. :)

11 Mar 17, 15:55

MikeL says:

no more Verity's Ark. All good things must come to an end and V.A. was THE BEST!!!! Congrats on your writing. :) Love you.

6 Mar 17, 07:58

E.E. says:

And that's the end of my NaNoWriMo story.

11 Feb 17, 10:14

E.E. says:

Progress is good on the new story, but I don't want to give away too much. A clue for MikeL, though: the working title is 'Dawn'

9 Feb 17, 20:33

says:

1 Feb 17, 22:15

E.E. says:

Starting work today on a new story. More details will follow...

30 Jan 17, 01:19

MikeL says:

It has been a while since i visited this site and i just reread some of my old comments and i just want to apologize for being a bit of a nag. I won't bring up that story again. :(

30 Jan 17, 01:17

MikeL says:

Looking at the latest cartoon (featuring Miki) and marveling at the incredibly prolific writing, it makes me a little sad that we never got to read the ending of "Revenge of the Sunbeam." But it is nice that we get to read more EE stuff.